


that's why we're making headlines

by Isagawa



Series: Glory And Gore [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: M/M, Post-Dressrosa too, Post-Punk Hazard, Pre-Dressrosa, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, depends on the chapter, lorde lyrics references, the yearning is getting real yall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:49:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26615488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isagawa/pseuds/Isagawa
Summary: "Law feels like a waiter in an overcrowded restaurant, crockery in his arms up to his head: just one or two more plates and he won’t be able to see. And the situation is tricky, the customers are angry, and he's in that strange in-between where everyone's looking at him and no one's paying attention to him yet."In which Law breaks, bends, and all the things in between.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Series: Glory And Gore [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748254
Comments: 8
Kudos: 99





	that's why we're making headlines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> first chapter of the last part of the series. this is where the yearning really starts baby
> 
> (i'd strongly advise reading the other parts of the series before this one, at least for the soulmarks lore and law's relationship to his. but who am i to tell you what to do huh)

They go on Straw Hat’s ship, and Law doesn’t look as they sail away from Punk Hazard. The island’s steep peaks gradually disappear below the horizon, like whipped cream on top of a coffee, slowly swallowed in a drink too hot. Dragged to the bottom, and dissolving there. 

Law dreams of a coffee, black and strong, capable of waking up the dead.

He doesn’t look, because he has squeezed Monet’s heart in his fist and felt it stop in stuttering halts, and he can guess Doflamingo is on his way to do just that to him. And although he is pretty sure the broker won’t make it in time to the island, still - he might be mistaken, and he is not willing to be proven wrong just yet. 

“It’s kinda beautiful,” the navigator’s voice says next to him. She's leaning against the rail, staring into space, or rather at the island they've just left, and her voice is pensive. As if she couldn't really believe that the sun sets so beautifully on such a place. 

Law knows even cruelty -especially cruelty- has a weird, twisted sort of beauty to it. What surprises him is her naivety. 

“Aren’t you used to it?” 

_The sunset, the ravages._

“First sunset with the crew since we got back together”, she says, a smile on her face. Oh, and he understands now- she wasn’t pensive, she was longing. “I missed it.”

“Hasn’t it been some time already?”

“There’s no real sun on Fishman Island.” 

Law takes some time connecting the dots, because no one in this goddamn crew knows how to talk clearly. “You were on Fishman Island before?” 

“Yup, first stop after Sabaody.”

“How...” He knows he’s no navigator, but it seems _wrong_ even to him. “How did you get to Punk Hazard directly after that? There’s no direct log route.”

“Yeaaaah,” she says, and laughs, and he watches as her gaze sweeps tenderly across the sea, “Luffy doesn’t follow routes. You should get used to it.” 

And then she’s adding: “If you’re really wondering, a bank of Island Whales liked Brook’s music and decided to help us for a while.”

“I can’t decide if you’re kidding.”

“You’ll live.” Nami turns to face him, smiling. “ _I_ can’t decide if trusting you is a good idea, so you seem the best of the bunch.”

He waits until she walks away to swallow around nothing. 

_At least it is clear._

Law feels like a waiter in an overcrowded restaurant, crockery in his arms up to his head: just one or two more plates and he won’t be able to see. And the situation is tricky, the customers are angry, and he's in that strange in-between where everyone's looking at him and no one's paying attention to him yet. 

Law is afraid the glasses are gonna fall, he’s afraid they’re gonna shatter to the ground. Some of them took so long to repair. Some of them are beyond fixing and he’s been drinking out of it anyway. 

He watches Straw Hat tip his head back from the other end of the ship, Adam’s apple bobbing when he drinks straight from the bottle. Luffy knocks half of it in one go, and Law schools his mouth into a thin line. 

Some have it easier. 

Straw Hat’s silhouette is both brawny and slender. His crew’s figures seem cut out in the sun **,** but Straw Hat receives the light with full force, feet wide on the deck, his whole body following his head that tips back, back, back—until it’s like a string snaps and he bounces back, everything straightening at once, his arm drawing a large arc and putting the bottle down on the table.

The bottle clinks but doesn’t shatter. For all his liveliness, Straw Hat is careful with the things he holds. 

The head of the sun kisses the horizon a final goodbye before disappearing. The amber curtain that enveloped Straw Hat like silk fades. All that remains is a subtle, golden glow. 

Law can’t quite tell why he’s still watching. 

  
  


*

  
  


Of course Doflamingo ends up calling, and of course Law must stop Straw Hat from speaking roughly two hundred times in two minutes, and mayhaps Law isn’t as in despair about it as he thought he would be. Which is enough to worry about as it is.

Law is— cold, manipulative— dishonest at best, but one thing he is not is delusional. Straw Hat Luffy is still as utterly dumb as he was two years ago, probably twice as reckless too. 

This would be disappointing, especially in relation to their new alliance, if Law had expected anything else of him. 

He wants to think he’s doing this because this is reasonable. And there _are_ reasonable arguments: Straw Hat Luffy is a Supernova, possibly the leader of the Worst Generation. Broke all hell loose in Impel Down. Altered the course of the world at Enies Lobby. And, of course, there had been Marineford. Two years ago, Straw Hat may have been reckless and dumb, but he had been strong too, surprisingly so, and he must have gotten stronger since. Law trusts him on that, because what it takes to be strong is determination, and Law can’t think of anyone who would’ve survived what Straw Hat went through without determination. (Determination, and a sheer amount of dumb luck.) 

Those are good reasons to propose an alliance to Straw Hat, ones he can get behind. 

Law thinks if one day he can convince himself he acted just because of those, he’ll be a happy man. 

  
  


*

  
  


He has told no one about _the bruise_ , but he thinks Bepo had noticed. Penguin might have, too, but he cannot know for sure: Penguin is of the quiet type when he doesn’t rant about non-flying volatiles. 

It’s weird thinking about it now. It feels like ages ago. 

He wonders if he will ever tell anyone now.

  
  


*

Law is fishing for a change of clothes out of his bag when Zoro asks: “What’s that?”

“My things.”

“When did you get these on board? I don’t remember seeing you bring them.”

“Swapped them here when we were still on the ground at Punk Hazard.”

“With what?” Zoro asks, hand immediately checking his swords even though he had them with him the whole day. (Even though Law clearly knows better than stealing a swordsman’s weapon.)

“One of Nami’s tangerine.”

Zoro seems... weirdly merry at that prospect. “Oh _dear_. Make sure she never hears about it. Even Luffy would have trouble saving you.”

Law rolls his eyes. “I’m not asking to be saved.”

Zoro’s grin gets sharper. “Yeah. I bet you ain’t.”

Law pointedly resolves to ignore him. He gets up and moves to the bathroom the sniper indicated earlier, when Zoro says: "Franky's showering." He also says that with an eye roll, like having a shower was a very random, optional thing to do.

Law shakes his head and heads to the kitchen instead. He's glad he remembers to knock, because the cook inside (does he live here?) looks up to him with pleasantly surprised eyes.

“Need something?”

"Could I use your sink for a quick wash?" 

Law thinks if he feels cold, melted snow on his skin for five more minutes, he's going to have to walk naked on the deck. This isn't a prospect he's too fond of.

Sanji wrinkles his nose, but acquiesces anyway. "No problem, but use the other sink. I'm using this one to wash vegetables. And clean after yourself."

Law nods shortly. On his way to the back of the kitchen, he peels off his upper clothes — coat, dirty shirt, dirty undershirt. When he discards them on the back of a chair, he notices Sanji staring at his shoulder. Law stares back.

“What’s that bruise?” Sanji asks, not unkindly.

“A bruise,” Law tersely answers.

The water runs, a soft background noise. They stay in silence and it's almost nice. 

That is, until— 

“ _Sanjiiiiiiii_ , when is dinner?”

Sanji drops the vegetable he’s holding, jostles a pile of plates and knocks a glass over in panic. Everything clatters too loud and Sanji is yelling _GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN_ and Luffy runs around the room trying to escape his kicks, and Law can only watch disbelievingly.

How are _any of them_ still alive? 

Well, Straw Hat he knows. He made sure of it himself. But still. 

“You put down that glass!”

“You dropped it yourself! I just caught it! You should say thank youuuu…”

Luffy laughs wildly, and Law turns his eyes back to the running water because he kind of wants to stare. He doesn’t know why and doesn’t want to know. He throws a dish towel around his neck and dips his head to wash his face. 

“Fine. You can stick around as long as you _stay still,_ ” the cook grunts in the background. Law splashes his face, scrapes his ears. 

Suddenly there’s a hand on his shoulder, dislodging the towel, _against his skin,_ and Luffy goes: “Ooooh, what’s that? It’s pretty.”

Law _stills_. 

“Not sure a bruise qualifies as pretty, Straw Hat-ya.” 

There’s gravel in his mouth, and the hand won’t be pried off. His skin is starting to buzz. 

“But it’s yellow- I love yellow,” Luffy objects, a childish voice next to his ears. Law’s mouth dries. There’s a warm, pleasant hum under his skin, and he has to scowl to conceal it from his face. 

He dips his entire face in water to avoid the situation. 

He only comes up again when his lungs burn, and steals a glance at the object of his discomfort. Luffy, hand still grasping his shoulder, smiles at him as if Law hadn’t just tried to drown himself in a kitchen sink. 

Law picks the towel up from the ground. 

“Would you mind letting me dress up again? I’m cold.”

  
  


*

  
  


When had he understood he planned on dying in Dressrosa? 

He didn’t remember an epiphany. The idea had simmered in, day after day, until he had found he didn’t contemplate having it any other way. But at that point, he had gotten used to gathering intelligence, and he had kept going out of habit. 

He had also known he wouldn’t be able to end Doflamingo alone. He’d die trying, but Doflamingo might not, and he needed insurance the whole ordeal would still hurt him, take him down. This is when the idea of an alliance had sunk in, and he had tried very hard to not think about Straw Hat — how it would be funny. And, destiny aside, he couldn’t think of another high-end pirate stupid enough to become his ally. 

After that, when gathering intel, he had thought of an alliance. 

He might be planning a suicide mission, but he couldn’t tell anyone, because who then would dare make an alliance with him? God knew Law wouldn’t have made an alliance with himself. He was suicidal, not dumb. And even then... 

He might be planning a suicide mission, and he might have sent his loved ones away to protect them, and he might not care if he died, but the one going to be his ally would not have not signed up for it. They would sign up for taking an emperor down, or going down in history, or just the sweet sweet ordeal of staying alive. 

Law had thought of Cora then. Of giving and taking and owing someone. And he had thought of Doflamingo asking people to die for him. 

Cora had built him from the ground up, but in passing away he had broken him just the same; and from this, Law had gathered that no action could be a hundred percent good. There was the intention, and then there was damage control. Cora’s intention had been good, and damage control had been disastrous, but Law had done pretty well considering his past (and not considering the many many issues he still dragged like a millstone around his neck). 

This alliance would be the opposite: very bad intentions to begin with, good damage control. Law didn’t intend to take and take and _take_ , ask people to die for him. They’d come out of this mess stronger, or he wouldn’t put them through it in the first place. 

Having a millstone was troublesome enough without being someone else’s, too.   
  


Dinner is at eight, two hours after the call-slash-bargain with Doflamingo: it's both too much time to think about what could go wrong and no time at all. Law is knee-deep in overthinking when Sanji calls for dinner, and given that the last thing his brain supplied to him was “ _the snail transponder that took the appearance of Doflamingo was almost as ugly as him_ ”, catching a break seems like a good idea.

Luffy sits beside him and manages to inhale half the food before it even touches his plate. Nami asks for the salt. On the other side of the table, Roronoa is drinking like the world is gonna end, and also like it’s not really something he fears.

There's also a kid, a samurai, a reindeer, a cyborg, Pinocchio, the most wanted demon child of the last twenty years, and of course a doctor known for stealing people's hearts (Law is not counting the cook, since he's not sitting there with them yet, shuttling back and forth between the kitchen and the table), so they make a rather lively bunch.

Speaking of the cook, Sanji's coming towards him right now with three plates in hand, seemingly sliding on the wooden floor, almost like a dancer. Law wonders idly if he was a waiter before becoming a cook: his sure feet seem to speak from experience.

"You sure are at ease with those."

"Huh?" Sanji asks, before catching Law pointing at the plates. "Oh, that's merely a matter of habit."

Law still feels like he is gonna drop all of his own mental plates and glasses, so he thinks _to hell with it_ and says: "Have some advice to spare?"

Making small talk is weird when it's not with his own crew, even if the conversation in question is more a big talk that wants to look small. Sanji puts the plate down and sucks on his cig. "It has to do with coordination, mostly. Huh, also hierarchisation too? Maybe that's not the right word, but like, you gotta know which plate is the heaviest so you can carry them the safest way. Why, you looking for a new vocation?"

"Hm. The health sector doesn't pay enough these days."

"Gotta warn you, it's a thankless job."

Zoro looks up from his rhum bottle with a jagged smile. "Thought you were more in the disease sector anyway."

Law opens his mouth but before he can say anything, a rubber arm loops around his shoulders. Luffy grins widely very close to Law's face, looks at his vice-captain.

"You'd be surprised!" he exclaims.

Something twitches in Law’s stomach.

Maybe Roronoa’s eyes soften, but he lifts his bottle again and Law can't be sure. "Can't wait,” he drawls. I live to be entertained."  
  


Later that evening, Sanji sits next to Law and gives him some _real_ advice on crockery-holding, and Law doesn't even have to fake his interest. The cook lights up mentioning every little thing related to food, and his enthusiasm is contagious.

"It's not that hard," Sanji ends up saying. His smile is easy, but it falls as soon as his eyes settle on his captain. "Unless you have a moron around knocking things off for fun."

"You're just jealous because when _you_ break things it's not on purpose!" Luffy chants.

" _No one_ breaks things on purpose except you!"

"Well they should," Luffy declares, crossing his arms, too self-assured for so bold a statement. "When I was little, Dadan would get soooo angry when I broke her stuff, but I could guess she was never really mad."

Law plays with the idea of asking who the hell Dadan is, because _no one in this crew gives any context when they speak ever_ , but quickly abandons it.

"I broke her bat once when I beat up a croco and she yelled for three hours straight, but she broke it herself on a dude's head when he tried to sneak into our home. _So_ ," Luffy presses, "you can see the breaking was not the problem here!"

"You really look too smug for someone that just exhibited basic reasoning abilities," Nami says, at the same time Sanji puts his cig out and goes "No, _you_ were the problem."

"I'm just saying," Luffy continues, pretending (or is he?) that he didn't hear, "it doesn't matter if you break a few glasses! Breaking things is fun!"

Law eats in silence. Maybe he'd wish to embrace Luffy's ideology if it wasn't as remote from his own as it is. It sure seems easy to live by.

"You're a menace, captain," he hears Franky say from the other bench, and Law wholeheartedly agrees. 

But in someone else’s voice, it seems tender. 

  
  


*

  
  


And then it's night.

When Law sleeps, it’s on the deck, two poor hours before the next dawn. He dreams of a high end restaurant and his feet splitting on broken glass. 

When he wakes it’s five in the morning and the sea is brimming, a weakened gold. 

Law stretches. His back aches, but nothing he can’t handle; it’s used to that kind of mistreatment. After a bit of warm-up he will be just fine. 

The sun will not rise until another two or three hours, but the sky isn’t dark anymore. Bepo told him dawn never really knows its place when it’s stuck between summer and winter islands, and Law remembers it now, looking at the sky, quilted and clear. He just doesn’t get to see it usually. Submarines and whatnots. 

What he wouldn’t give to see Bepo, right now.

Law stretches again, bends over to touch his shoes. He tries not to think too hard about it, but he’s never been any good at that. 

What he wouldn’t give to see Bepo again. And Shachi and Penguin and Ikkaku again, and Jean Bart and all the other ones, what he would give and what he wouldn’t. And he knows he’d give almost anything he has so that they can stay safe. 

Cora’s memory he wouldn’t give, but he thinks it’s a question of purpose as much as sentimentality. He just knows what version of him would exist if not for Cora’s memory, and he thinks it better for everyone if it’s never taken from him. It’s not something he likes to think about. 

Law likes the person he is on the Polar Tang the most; the version of him that could hide a smile behind the peak of a cap and let his friends touch him, the one that finds comfort in the colour yellow, whose hands don’t shake when he treats someone. 

He likes the person he is on land too: surrounded by strangers and potential enemies, aloof and weirdly relaxed. This Law has a levelled head, a neutral gaze and his hands around Kikoku’s hilt. This Law is sensible and careful, and likes to give the middle finger to everyone, and catches naps on Bepo while the rest of his crew went shopping. 

But there is another Law, the version of Law that had grown along with the white scars on his face, the one with cold eyes and cold cold anger stuck down his throat; and this one scares him. This Law doesn’t fear anything or anyone, this Law doesn’t fear _for_ anyone. 

In that instant Law misses his crew—a pang of yearning mixed with guilt, white-hot in his chest. Maybe they weren’t right to do so but they trusted him ( _trust him_ , _you’re not dead yet_ ) and he has never told them what it meant to him. Just how much it meant. And now the version of himself he likes most is going to fade into oblivion —which has always been worse than dying, as Law should know— because no one knew it existed in the first place, because he never told a soul. 

“Hey Torao!”

Law winces. 

The other captain appeared in an instant, all up in his face, as always loud and boisterous. The nerves of _steel_ his crew must have developed over the years. “Good morning, Straw Hat.”

“You hungry?” Straw Hat asks.

Law hasn't even had coffee yet, and if he didn't already know whatever heavenly power there is up here hated him, there goes his proof. Why must Luffy always scoot so close? Personal space is a thing.

“It’s five in the morning. No, I’m not. Why are you here?”

Law hopes the other captain wants to review the plan, but he certainly doesn’t expect it. He knows he’s right when Luffy deflects in front of him. “Oh.”

“Why?” he repeats.

“I’m hungry! With your power you could’ve swapped me in the kitchen.”

Law frowns, before remembering he saw the cook wrap a huge chain and padlock around the kitchen door late last night. He had thought it weird, but having witnessed Luffy eating with the G-5 at Punk Hazard he guesses it makes sense. He wonders if the cook went through the trouble of buying a seastone chain.

“I don’t get it," he says. Straw Hat tilts his head sideways, like a puppy, or a bird. Law clarifies. "Why would you ask if I'm hungry? My power still works when I’m not. You could have asked about the kitchen straight away.” _Not that I would have said yes._

Luffy blinks. “I thought I could bring you something back from the kitchen if you were hungry? As a thanks? I thought it worked like that,” Luffy mutters.

Law is perplexed.

“What works? Like what?”

“Like, you do something for me, I do something for you! That’s how an alliance works, right?” Luffy smiles at him, before scratching his head. “I mean, I’d do something for you without payback too. But you like rules, so.”

Law blinks.

And then he's saying _"I'll get you in the kitchen",_ and the words are as much a surprise for Straw Hat as for him.

Luffy grins — wide wide and wider still, and he whoops and maybe Law cringes at the loud noise, but then Luffy says "You're the best!!" and it becomes, somehow, very worth it.

_I'm going crazy and we're not even in Dressrosa yet._

"Come on, come on!" Luffy urges him, holding a hand out, and Law makes a point to not take it when he stands up.

"Let's get you something to eat."

  
  
  
  


They come upon a problem in front of the kitchen, when Law glances inside through the window. At least, Law comes upon a problem.

"Straw Hat, is it normal that the kitchen _and_ the fridge are locked?"

"Huh? Yeah."

"Then what exactly do you intend to eat?"

Luffy points to a duffel bag on a shelf, and Law squints trying to read Sanji's handwriting on it.

"You might want to think again."

"What?? Why?"

“This is pasta. It's uncooked.”

“Hm hm” Luffy nods, eyes scanning the kitchen, looking like he’s not listening to half of what Law says. “It's okay, just crunchier.”

The look of horror on Law’s face must be pretty hilarious, in hindsight.

  
  
  
  


It’s only when Luffy crouches down in front of him, raw awful horrifying pasta stuffed in his mouth and a satisfied look on his face, that Law realises he hasn't been thinking about his soulmark at all. 

Huh.

  
  
  
  


Ten minutes later, Luffy looks up at the sky and says: "The news will be here soon."

The sun has started poking out from below the sea. Soon they'll know if Law's plan will unfold as planned. If Doflamingo is letting go of his Warlord title. If they’ll be able to step into the ring, draw some blood at last. 

Law wrings his fingers together and breathes.

He thinks about the version of himself that's cold and unfearing. It's been some time since he has really tried to learn from this kid that had been him not that long ago. He had wanted to shut him away, as a thank you to Cora that had seen more to him than just this wild, hurt beast of a child. This kid scares him, yet he draws from him here on the deck, because he knows he could use the strength, as icy as it gets.

Straw Hat burps.

Law glares.

"You know, it's too early to think that much," Luffy says.

Law wants to scream. Instead he says, "If you follow the plan I won't have to think for the two of us."

Luffy laughs and says nothing, which does _not_ reassure Law.

"What you thinking 'bout?" Luffy says then. Law can't decide if that's because he really cares or because he can't shut up.

Incomprehensibly, Law feels sorry, then.

"You're not gonna like the person I'll be on Dressrosa.”

Luffy shoots him a weird look. "Why?"

"It's gonna be bad." Law shuts his mouth because what does he think he is doing, saying that to his soulmate, to his _ally, have you finally gone batshit?_ Yet he adds, for good measure: "But all will go just fine if you follow the plan."

Luffy is still looking at him. He's looking at him like it's the first time he sees him, and Law holds his gaze steadily, like it’s not hard.

Luffy scowls.

“You think I’m scared of you?” he asks.

Law does a double-take. "Never said that."

"That's what you think." 

It’s insolent but not provocative. He’s lifted his chin and is looking at Law, round, cheeky face catching the light. He’s golden and there is a mark on Law’s body that would shine just the same, if only it saw the sun.

“As long as we’re allies, you have no reason to be scared of me,” Law says. 

Level, unaffected. There has been marks on his skin before.

“This is a delicate task we’re taking on. The only thing you have to do is not drop any glass to the floor, and we’ll be fine.”

“Torao, I'm not afraid of you,” Luffy says. He picks a stray pasta up from the floor, cracks it between his molars. “I'm not. I won't be. ”

He gulps the pasta down. 

Law gulps down too, around nothing. Straw Hat sounds so soft all of a sudden. Suddenly his face splits into a grin. “Besides, I told you already. Breaking things is fun! Dropping glasses is fun, if only just to hear them break.”

Law looks at the sky. 

“We’ll see about that,” Law says, because he likes having the last word.

  
  


*

  
  


(It’s hard feeling you have the last word when Luffy doesn’t listen to half of what you say.)

**Author's Note:**

> maybe if y'all are nice i'll stop writing law so stupid
> 
> find me on twitter: @impelbreakdown


End file.
